Safety at the Beach

Last Sunday’s riot at Huntington Beach, at which hundreds of youths went on a rampage, pelted police with bottles and rocks and destroyed their vehicles, was not the first disturbance of its kind in the beach community.

It was similar to a melee three years ago that started in the same way police say this one began: Some young men in the crowd near the pier area where annual surfing competitions were being held tried to pull off women’s bikinis. When police moved in to protect the women, the crowd grew hostile.

This time hundreds of rowdy youths ran amok, pelting police with rocks and bottles. They overturned police vehicles and set them afire. There were about a dozen injuries, 10 arrests and five police vehicles destroyed. It took about 140 officers from other agencies who came to the aid of the 20 Huntington Beach officers to finally restore order.

In regaining control, however, police must not overreact. There have been dozens of complaints of police brutality in quelling the riot--charges that police deny. Film footage of the riot does show officers freely swinging their clubs at some people running away. Emotions obviously ran high on both sides.

One of the major problems was the fact that Huntington Beach police had only 20 officers assigned to the event, which drew an estimated 90,000 people on the day of the riot. Clearly this is not enough police. A more visible police presence could help deter riots and enable police to bring any confrontations under control much faster while waiting for backup help to arrive.

Police and city officials are now considering ways to defuse future situations. It’s difficult to determine whether the rowdies who started Sunday’s riot were there for the surfing event, and therefore canceling the surfing competition might be an overreaction.

Under consideration are such measures as moving the surfing championships to some other weekend beside Labor Day to cut down on the beach crowd, banning bottles on the beach and roping off the championship area to get better crowd control. All those measures could help.

A day at the beach is the most enjoyable, and perhaps only, hot-weather recreation for many people. It should be fun. And safe. More police protection when large crowds are expected would help ensure that safety--and a quick, effective and controlled response if things do get out of hand.